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The Company of Wolves Angela Carter

1940-1992 She is most famous for a 1979 collection of reimagined fairy tales called The Bloody Chamber, from which “The Company of Wolves” comes. The story “The Company of Wolves” itself actually contains several stories, and the excerpt we are looking at is one of those stories. Which traditional fairy tale is it based upon?

VERSIONS OF LRRH There are various versions of the tale. The one we are most familiar with is the Grimm’s version, originally called “Little Red Cap,” in which a hunter/woodsman rescues the girl and Granny (though it has an added alternate ending in which the girl lures the wolf to his death by drowning). An older French tale, “The Story of Grandmother,” describes the wolf as a bzou (werewolf) and he has the girl throw all her clothes into the fire. A French version from 1697, probably based on that one, ends with a moral for “young ladies” about not talking to strangers, the “wolves” with two legs who “pursue young girls in the street and are “the most dangerous beasts of all.” So it sees the story as metaphorical, as a warning to girls to be wary of predatory males. We can see how elements of the above stories have been taken by Carter and reworked in her story. SOME TERMS AND REFERENCES Pentacle: a pentagram— a five-pointed star and magical symbol which can be used to ward off evil (single point up) or aid it (two points up)

Cuneiform: wedge shaped

Wide-awake hat

Prophylactic: in this context, something used as a preventative—in the story, Granny’s … Greek fire : This was a mysterious flammable liquid used as an incendiary weapon in early naval warfare

Prothalamion: basically, a song or poem sung in honour of a forthcoming marriage Threnody: a song (or poem) mourning the dead or a dead person Liebestod: liebe means life, and tod death, so this is the idea of love surviving death Walpurgisnacht: the eve of May Day, and named after Saint Walpurga, an 8th C. nun associated with healing and warding off witchcraft. It used to be widely celebrated in Northern Europe with bonfires, and in places still is. The werewolve’s birthday: apparently to be born on Christmas Day made it likely you would become a werewolf THE STORY We should think how it differs from other versions, and from common conceptions of Little Red Riding Hood herself. This version is not intended for small children. It works according to the usual familiar pattern until close to the end, but then shifts. It centres on the girl—she is the only character whose thoughts we are privy to in any significant way -- but a girl no longer quite just a girl. It is in her being a woman that her power lies. (How might her being a woman be signified by the colour of her shawl?) Note that “children do not stay young for long in this savage country” To what extent is she a potential victim, and to what extent is she not an actual one?

What is her attitude to the bet, to the hunter getting to her grandmother’s house first? How is that significant? How is what granny might think of as a “prophylactic” significant—what she hurls at the hunter? What might that be signifying to us regarding the story? After the girl enters the cottage, what does she know about the inside of ‘the worst wolves” and what does that mean? The wolve are howling outside; their eyes shining “like a hundred candles.” What is her reaction, and what does it tell us about her? A threnody is a song for the dead; what might be the meaning of her closing the window on it? What is the significance of her reaction to what he says when she remarks, “What big teeth you have”? What are we told here that “she knew” and why is that important? By the end of the story, what impact does she seem to have had on the werewolf?...